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?????The past week, I caught up with a few friends and we were discussing the ?state of the world?

We touched on the Kavenaugh predicament and we?ve also touched on several movements across the world.

These discussions can be very heated and sometimes, people want you to make a firm stand on one side.

Maybe it?s my glass half-full take on things, but regardless of the result, bringing up these sensitive issues to the table IS A WIN.

Every woman, every person of color, and basically every person who finds themselves at a disadvantage makes choices out of the current predicament they?re in - with the current information they had.

The first year I was in Taiwan, I worked part-time on campus. I did admin work in a department office. The department chair then was a man. He came in and asked me to take off his coat and hang it.

To say caught off guard is understating it. Coming from a predominantly matriarch society and a matriarchal family, I was stunned. How could someone ask me (a woman) take off his coat and hang it?? I worked at the department office and not as a butler! But I did. Because I didn't think I had a choice.

The same year, I was sexually harassed by a ?visiting? professor. I went to the department assistant to ask how I could file a suit. She told me to drop the idea because of two reasons: my gender and my origin. I come from a ?developing? country while the other comes from a ?developed? country.

Again, I let my voice be crushed because I ?believed? I had no choice.

My experience is just a drop in a bucket compared to the number of people who?ve experienced situations where they felt they had no choice because of the current conceptions and perceptions.

Today, we see a lot of people standing up and speaking up. This is a victory. Change - especially when we speak of cultural identity and society identity - takes a lot of time.

The little steps we take, including raising awareness and being living examples of what good human beings are, should not be discounted.

These discussions I was part of - made me remember to simply focus on what I can contribute moving forward.

For change to occur, we (consisting of you and me) must be willing to be open minded - open to new ideas and open to the fact that it would take time for others to see things another way.

I write this newsletter out of love for the world and intention that the people reading can come from open-mindedness. This is not to preach, to criticize or to antagonize.

 

It is simply a reminder - that every step we take toward change - albeit little - matters.

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